This is a rough one, isn't it? But I'm hoping that by now you've decided this is a very worthwhile text for study. There's a great deal of craftsmanship to admire, even if the subject matter is confusing or uncomfortable. Don't give up. You can make something of this!
Bond's Lear can be seen as dialectical in structure. For more on this, see the first part of Patricia Hern's commentary in your student editions of Lear (pgs. xxiv-xxv) and/or go to this site for some rudimentary ideas about dialectics, particularly as it relates to Hegel's ideas, that is, the art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments. (Dictionary.com's definition: The process especially associated with Hegel of arriving at the truth by stating a thesis, developing a contradictory antithesis, and combining and resolving them into a coherent synthesis.) http://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/philosophy/courses/hegel/dialectx.htm
I know this is King Lear -- but for you die-hard English types...you'll appreciate this. There's even a photo of an Einstein-ish Lear surrounded by nasty daughters from Bond's version at the tail end of this pdf study guide: http://www.hofstra.edu/PDF/DD_lear-study_guide-s.pdf
And one more bit of blather from my POV...Isn't there a bit of life imitating art if you see things from the perspective of this reporter on the American political scene? I'm not telling you how to believe (or vote for that matter), but check out the writing here--first for the bit on the American Democrats as Greek tragedy restaged, then the theories that seem to come from a standpoint that asserts if you play fair, you'll lose, and then how will you change the world into a fair place? Anyone besides me see the irony -- not to mention the commonality with Edward Bond?! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article3803520.ece
And more food for thought on the limitations of Shakespeare's original -- a link to George Orwell's essay "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool." Use the Find tool to locate the section excerpted in your student edition of Lear ("One is the mood of disgust in which Lear repents, as it were, for having been a king, and grasps for the first time the rottenness of formal justice and vulgar morality. The other is the mood of impotent fury in which he wreaks imaginary revenges upon those who have wronged him." [...] Only at the end does he realise, as a sane man, that power, revenge and victory are not worthwhile.") http://www.george-orwell.org/Lear,_Tolstoy_and_the_Fool/0.html
Lear by Edward Bond
This is a rough one, isn't it? But I'm hoping that by now you've decided this is a very worthwhile text for study. There's a great deal of craftsmanship to admire, even if the subject matter is confusing or uncomfortable. Don't give up. You can make something of this!
If you're looking for some guidance, check out these three guides.
Critical essay 1
Critical essay 2
Critical essay 3
And how about some interviews, blogs, etc., regarding Edward Bond?
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/Interviews+22204.twl (Actually King Lear and then Edward Bond's play The Sea, from The National Theatre)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/nightwaves/pip/z6lfa/ (An archived 2005 podcast interview with one director of Lear)
A director's take:
http://www.theatre-contemporain.net/spectacles/learbond/presentationus.htm
Bond's Lear can be seen as dialectical in structure. For more on this, see the first part of Patricia Hern's commentary in your student editions of Lear (pgs. xxiv-xxv) and/or go to this site for some rudimentary ideas about dialectics, particularly as it relates to Hegel's ideas, that is, the art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments. (Dictionary.com's definition: The process especially associated with Hegel of arriving at the truth by stating a thesis, developing a contradictory antithesis, and combining and resolving them into a coherent synthesis.)
http://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/philosophy/courses/hegel/dialectx.htm
Review of the 2005 production at The Crucible Theatre:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2005/03/25/entertainment_lear_review_feature.shtml
Another short commentary--some thoughts on allusions and other literary connections included
http://www.geocities.com/christophermulrooney/criteria/id124.html
I know this is King Lear -- but for you die-hard English types...you'll appreciate this. There's even a photo of an Einstein-ish Lear surrounded by nasty daughters from Bond's version at the tail end of this pdf study guide:
http://www.hofstra.edu/PDF/DD_lear-study_guide-s.pdf
And one more bit of blather from my POV...Isn't there a bit of life imitating art if you see things from the perspective of this reporter on the American political scene? I'm not telling you how to believe (or vote for that matter), but check out the writing here--first for the bit on the American Democrats as Greek tragedy restaged, then the theories that seem to come from a standpoint that asserts if you play fair, you'll lose, and then how will you change the world into a fair place? Anyone besides me see the irony -- not to mention the commonality with Edward Bond?!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article3803520.ece
http://www.hofstra.edu/PDF/DD_lear-study_guide-s.pdf
And more food for thought on the limitations of Shakespeare's original -- a link to George Orwell's essay "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool." Use the Find tool to locate the section excerpted in your student edition of Lear ("One is the mood of disgust in which Lear repents, as it were, for having been a king, and grasps for the first time the rottenness of formal justice and vulgar morality. The other is the mood of impotent fury in which he wreaks imaginary revenges upon those who have wronged him." [...] Only at the end does he realise, as a sane man, that power, revenge and victory are not worthwhile.")
http://www.george-orwell.org/Lear,_Tolstoy_and_the_Fool/0.html